Welcome to Earth
by bubbyqureshi
Summary: When the covenant home planet destroyed by a foreign alien race. The arbiter takes it upon himself from preventing the galaxy from meeting a similar doom. Putting aside their differences, he teams up with the Master Chief to take down prevent the oracle from activating the Halo, all while eliminating the flood threat. Then the arbiter has to move onto earth, will he be accepted?
1. Summary

In this history of bad days, this was the worst day in the my life. First an uncharted alien race called the Glipi invaded and destroyed the entirety of the covenant home planet. These snake looking beasts stole my chance at the covenant throne right from beneath his nose. How could he have known that deep underneath the surface of his home planet, lived these slippery bastards and how could i have predicted that on one random ass tuesday they would show their ugly faces and throw our highly diverse covenant race into near extinction.

Second, the oracle is on his way to activate Halo. In an attempt to stop the flood. The flood, if you are wondering are essentially little kidney-spider looking suckers that turn dead people into zombies. Their hunger for life never ends, the only way to stop them (according to the oracle) is to starve them. Which is what the halo will do by releasing a charge that will travel to the other 7 halo rings and effectively vaporize all sentient life in the galaxy. Let's just say, I prefer plan B.

Third, I will be fighting the flood alongside the demon who calls himself either The Master Chief or John. This _John_ is the reason that I was punished, branded and left for dead by my people. He revealed the truth of the halo to me which roused me to act. He is also responsible for the death of many of my fellow covenant soldiers. But the biggest stress out of this whole thing is that I must return to earth with the demon and live there. Because of the damn Glipi tribe I must live on a giant demon infested rock! They will ridicule me, put me in a zoo, experiment on me! No, nobody disrespects the arbiter. Not if I have anything to say about it!


	2. Video log (introduction)

"Demon, I really hate this idea." The arbiter said as he sat down in front of the blue holographic woman. Cortana was struck when he used the world demon to identify her. But pushed it aside, knowing that he wasn't trying to offend her. It was just an old habit that the covenant had. "First of all, human and second of all, this is for your own good. You have been under critical levels of stress, my calculations show that if you were a human you would have suffered at least three heart attacks by now. But the fact that your not doesn't mean that your okay. Your not okay Thel, these personal logs will provide you with a way to retell the story, analyze it in your own words, and effectively help you move on with your life. It's a way to heal from all this pain you have gone through."

 _Dammit! I did it again!_ Feeling the cool air fill my lungs, I took a calming deep breath. "I am sorry human. It slipped out, I didn't mean to insult you again." I tilted my head up, closed my eyes and scratched my mandibles. _If she really wants me to do this, then I shall. I owe her this._ "Okay human. Let's do this."

The human girl lit right up with excitement as she scrambled around to get her camera ready. She was kind of cute when she acted like this, however I will make no advances on her, this one is spoken for. "Okay!" Cortana said plopping down in the seat across from me, "tell me exactly what happened in 3...2...1" and the red button illuminated. _Here we go_


	3. Heresy

I was backed up against a wall, two elites and a hunter were closing in. The hunter had an assault cannon aimed right at my face. Feeling the cool stiffness of the wall on my back, I assessed my situation. The two elites were smaller and had a more nervous energy around them. That hesitation could be their downfall, the biggest problem was the hunter. His size alone blocked most of my escape routes, his height made it impossible for me to scan for any exits, he was so strong that he could snap me in half with only a finger, and his breath grew more and more lethal the closer he got. I needed to distract the hunter long enough to take out the elites. Hunters, as powerful as they are have one weakness. They are incredibly slow, I could use this to my advantage. Once I take care of the two elites, I could dodge roll behind the hunter and stab him with my energy sword. That wouldn't kill him, but it would buy me enough time to escape.

A string of loud shots suddenly filled the room. I could feel them thundering in my chest. In front of me, the hunter was shaking uncontrollably, his limbs twitching and flailing in every direction almost like he was being electrocuted. Finally the shots stopped and the hunter dropped to the ground, yellow blood oozing from many puncture wounds in his back. Behind him stood the demon in clad green armor with a golden visor, lowering his assault rifle. I snatched this opportunity to subdue the other two elite as they stared at the demon in terror. Grabbing the first elite by the arm, I used my superior strength to toss him into the air. He flew 10 feet and was promptly shot down by the demon. Before the second elite could call for backup I ran him through with my energy sword. Soon the room was silent except for the soft vibrations emitting from my energy sword. Closing my eyes and bringing the sword closer to my face, I listened to it's gentle hum. This was the only thing that could calm me after what I just did.

Taking a deep breath I whispered blessings to my fallen covenant brethren. Praying for their return to the creator, for their families who mourn them, and for my own forgiveness. I was interrupted when the demon suddenly clasped my shoulder and questioned. "Arbiter tell me, what made you that much stronger than a typical elite?"

"I don't know what your talking about."

"No other elite could toss someone their own height that high into the air."

"I am the arbiter."

"Yes you are, however that does not answer my question."

"IT MEANS INSTIGATOR, DEMON!" I spat. The room was quiet, I shouldn't have yelled. He is my ally, I was only frustrated because of my recent actions. The demon watched me, even though his mask covered his face, I could tell I crossed a line. "I- I'm sorry, I was only saying that an arbiter describes a person who settles disputes, who uses action to create influence for the good of their people. Meaning that if I see that a leader is ruling unjustly, I will start a movement to correct the issue and people will follow. Kind of like an anti-hero. I rigorously trained so that I could make myself stronger to be able to face any corruption, despite the magnitude.

The demon silently nodded, his eyes focused on the bodies on the floor. He seemed to be deep in thought. "L- listen, I really didn't mean to-"

"First of all, call me either Master Chief, Spartan, or John. Secondly, How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Here you are teaming up with the very guy who earned you that brand." The spartan said, touching the mark on my chest. "Your teaming up with the devil that you've been warned to stay away from your entire life. By helping me stop the monitor er- I'm sorry, the Oracle. You are going against all religious teachings that you have been taught since you were a child! On top of all that you are exterminating your own friends, family and acquaintances because they are trying to stand in your way. And it's not their fault, very few people will willingly uproot their entire life and forget all they have been taught for one man. I cannot imagine what your going through, as strong as I am I don't think I could do what you are doing. Yet this is the first time you yelled. After all of that you should be screaming and crying! But your not. The worst of it is that you are doing something so unbearably difficult to protect the entire galaxy, and your not even going to be rewarded. I mean of course the marines will all celebrate with you, but then what? Without your planet, you will be forced to live on earth. Where you may face discrimination, be put on display in a zoo, or be experimented on in some lab far removed from society."

I take a deep breath, "Listen John. You are correct, this is incredibly difficult for me to do. Impossible in fact. I recently had to gun down my ex-wife, of course I want to scream, cry, curse the world. But the fact of the matter is, if we do not stop the oracle from activating the rings, all life as we know it will cease. Yes, this was a religious belief that was shoved down our throats by the prophets, but we were never told that the rings would end all life. All we were told was that the rings would give us salvation if we activated them. You were the demon in our story because you were trying to prevent us from activating the halo. We didn't know what you knew. When you revealed the truth to me, I didn't believe you, but I was intrigued all the same. I did some digging and I found the very same evidence that cortana revealed to you. We were also taught to never speak to the oracle, because if it revealed the divine message we would all go to hell. But that day, I didn't care about all of that. I went to the temple and I questioned the oracle, where it revealed the true destructive nature of the seven Halo rings. This confirmed your story and pushed me to warn people. I told my family and friends, I told everyone I knew. But they betrayed me, they turned me into the prophets where I faced trial. I wasn't going to give up, I told the prophets what I have found. That is when they branded me, stripped me of my honor, and accused me of heresy. That is the day I stopped being part of the covenant race. They will never join me, I must do what is necessary for the betterment of not only the covenant, but the humans, and all of the species that reside in this galaxy.

We walked on in silence, occasionally killing covenant enemies as they tried to stop us. "That is very brave of you Arbiter." Said John, blasting a grunt in the face with a needler. "Thel." I said, "My name is Thel." The spartan turned towards me, placed both hands on my shoulders. "Well Thel, I have good news for you." Before I could ask what the good news was, he moved out of the way. Behind him was a grandiose circular room, with a large central computer. Above the computer hovered the oracle, his familiar humming echoing throughout the room. Even though he was humming a happy song, it sounded grim in this tense moment. _We're here._


	4. The Destruction of Halo

The fight against the oracle was intense. John and I stood back to back for most of the fight, blasting senetals out of the air. As long as the oracle was functional, it would keep summoning more senetales until he could tire us out and then take the final blow. Wave after wave I could feel my strength draining. Every once and awhile a senetal would get a hit in, leaving burned tissue where he struck. Soon enough I had burn marks covering most of my body, one well aimed grenade was all it took for John to finally finish the job. The other senetales initated their self-destruct sequence with their leader destroyed, I wanted to celebrate but the pain of the burns was too strong. Instead I fell to my knees, John knelt down in front of me and began to treat my wounds. Amazingly, the spartan sustained no visible damage. "John, how were you not hurt during that fight? There were lasers coming from all directions!" I asked wincing.

"The armor that I wear is specialized. The outer green plates are made up of a thick titanium alloy, its job is to sustain damage with its shock resistant technology, and to provide regeneration to the armor if it is damaged. The black bodysuit underneath is made of a fine weave of titanium nano-composite, its job is to disperse my body heat so that I stay cool, enhance damage protection, aid in regeneration and to provide smoother mobility. The only way that I can be damaged is if an enemy were to break though my armor despite its thickness, durability, strength and regeneration and then also break though the reinforced body suit. While your armor is just a run of the mill brand of metal armor. It has durability and enhances your strength but it is also heavy, slowing you down and does not cover the entirety of your body." John said poking my neck, mandibles, legs, arms, hands and feet. "This really only protects your major organs located in your torso."

Perhaps he is right, the spartan's armor is much stronger and does protect his entire body. I should look into acquiring this type of armor. "Chief, Arbiter come listen to a dying man's last words." came Sergeant Avery Johnson's voice from the left. The sergeant was shot down by the oracle just as we entered the room, it was sickening to see him lay on the ground helpless, wheezing, dying.

Grabbing my hand and looking into my yellow slitted eyes he spoke, "Arbiter, even though he covenant gave us humans some grade-A bullshit to deal with I am honored that you stuck my our master chief and aided us in this battle. It was the human's fault that the flood was taken out of containment in the first place, my team and I were just so curious on what you covenant were trying too hard to hide. We should have just respected your warnings, instead of assuming it was a weapon to destroy earth and setting out to find it. That mistake caused lots of fatalities on both of our sides. Everything seemed hopeless, it felt like because of our stupidity the flood was going to consume everything that ever existed in this entire mother-flipping galaxy! Just before I gave up on everything, the Master Chief marched in. Dragging your iguana-ass behind him, little did I know that your face would be the face of salvation. Kid, what I am trying to say is that it has been an honor fighting by your side. You have fully earned my trust and have been promoted to be my one and only favorite covenant elite." Johnson coughed. "Consider yourself one of us." He concluded, handing me a earthly marine badge.

"I- I don't know what to say sir."

"Then don't say anything. You did good, now get your lobster looking face away, i want to talk to my spartan." Teased Johnson, chuckling.

Turning the golden badge around in my fingers, I admired the intricate image of a spartan mask in front of a flag. _To think, right now I am technically a spartan._ My fingers found the brand that was burned into my chest. _The humans have been the covenant's rivals for thousands of years. We competed over everything, technology advances, food, and culture. We constantly were warring with each other. It was up to the point where our religion classes taught us that humans were demons, and forbid us from speaking to them. Yet the humans are quicker to accept me, than my own people were. Perhaps we are the demons._  
Suddenly a loud explosion went off inside the room, a fire started, the ground shook, and shrapnel flew in all directions. More and more explosions were following one after another, each bigger than the last. If this kept up the entire structure would cave in and we would all be crushed. John suddenly appeared at my side, returning Cortana to his helmet. "Johnson is gone and Cortana just set the Halo to self-destruct. We have twenty minutes to reach our ship. It's time to get out of here." He said, patting my back. Together we ran, triumphant that the Halo will never be able to activate, that the senetals have all been destroyed and that the flood will be destroyed with the destruction of Halo.


	5. Escape from Halo

We had only 20 minutes to get out of the facility, into a warthog, into our ship (ECHO 419), and out of Halo's atmosphere. No biggie, right? Our best case scenario has us watching Halo's destruction from a safe distance, on a ship headed towards Earth. Worst case scenario, the galaxy is still saved but we blow up along with Halo. The ground beneath our feet suddenly erupted, the explosion separating me from the spartan, and leaving a large chasm in its wake. "Keep moving!" I yelled at the spartan, "We will meet outside!" With a nod the spartan took off.

I spun around and was suddenly meet with the eyes of my best friend, Doonor. A rush of memories flowered within my head, scenes of us playing games together at school, sleepovers, hanging out together as young adults, going on double dates, supporting each other through bad breakups, and graduating the academy together. Suddenly I felt Doonor grab my hand and pull me towards the exit, "Come on Thel. We will talk later, first we have to get out of here!" Butterflies filled my stomach at the thought that Doonar was on my side, that I did not have to kill him. Together we ran, just as we did when we were kids.

-15 minutes remaining -

A large explosion laughed us outside of the facility and onto the pavement outside. It was still crazy outside, explosions destroyed structures everywhere, buildings were toppling over, the ground was shaking, and flood minions were running amok eating anybody they came across. Pushing off from the ground I spoke to Doonar for the first time since my exile, "Doonar, I am so glad that you-" My thank you was cut short when Doovan suddenly turned me over and placed his foot on my throat. "D- Doovan?" I choked out.

"What is your problem Thel?! Your destroying Halo! Your damning us all to Hell!"

"N-no Doovan, you don't understaaaa-" I struggled to breathe as his foot crushed my windpipe further

"My son knows he's going to Hell! That were all going to Hell! He knows there is no salvation anymore, Uncle Thel destroyed our path to Heaven!"

"Please listen..." I wheezed

"I should kill you." Doovan hissed, placing his covenant carbine to my temple. "I should kill you not only for damning your entire race all to Hell, but also for the covenant citizens you killed in cold blood during this mission of yours, and for siding with a Demon!" I could feel the heat from the barrel heating up followed by a high pitch whistling noise. The sound of the carbine charging up. I was about to receive a shot equivalent to a sniper at point-blank range.

-10 minutes remaining-

Stretching down, I reached for my energy sword. But we both graduated with top marks from the academy. Doovan crushed my hand under his knee, "Don't even think about escaping Thel! You activated the self-destruct sequence, your going to blow up with it!" Doovan growled, pressing harder on my throat and causing my vision to falter. A loud blast followed my a high pitch ringing filled my head. Though my vision was blurry, I could see Doovan drop to the ground and be replaced by the Spartan. "That was a close one." said John. Feeling myself get lifted off the ground and looking over the spartan's shoulder, I saw a black blurry heap on the ground. My eyes stung with tears as I realized that it was Doovan. In order to rescue me, the spartan had to kill my best friend.

I felt myself being lowered into a leather seat and a leather strap being pulled across my chest. Even with my vision blacking out, I could tell my the roaring of the engine that I was in the spartan's warthog. The warthog lurched and jumped, took sharp turns and drifted towards ECHO 419. Waves of exhaustion and weakness hit me with every jolt the vehicle brought. I felt myself slipping, my eyelids drooping. I was so tired, maybe I'll just take a nap. "STAY WITH ME THEL!" I heard the Spartan scream, starling me out of my trance. "You can't die on me yet." he said softly.

-5 minutes remaining-

"ECHO 419, where are you?!" I heard the spartan yell into his radio.

"Chief! This is ECHO 419, we are under fire. We can't get close enough to pick you up, your going to have to jump. Were just ahead of the cliff!"

"Roger that, keep the engine warm. Were going to have to jump to hyper-speed right away!"

"Yes sir!"

Suddenly I felt the Master Chief remove me from my seat and hold me like a football in his arm. His own belt was off, and he was standing up in the driver's seat. We were speeding toward a ramp behind the dropship at close to 300mph. Fires were burning in the engine of the warthog. I looked at the chief "John! We are not going to make it! The warthog will blow!" Looking at me in the eyes, the chief replied. "She'll make it." With that we hit the ramp and for a beautiful moment flew weightless in the air. It wasn't enough, the warthog began its descent too early. The Chief threw me into the back of the ship and jumped afterward.

I winced as I rolled into the cargo hold, crashing into boces and various machines. My heart lurched when I saw that the chief didn't quite make it. He was clinging onto the edge of the ramp. Scrambling to my feet, I sprinted to the wall and pressed the button to close the back of the dropship. As the door lifted, the chief slipped in and slided towards my feet. He looked up and our eyes met, we both began to laugh mechanically. We survived! Halo is gone! The flood is gone! We have brought peace to our galaxy.


	6. Welcome to Earth

Setting down his third beer the Chief let out the most impressive belch I have ever heard. It was nice to see him like this. A moment where he could have a few drinks and let loose instead of being so serious and grim. "Has anyone ever seen you this comfortable John?" I asked.

"Very few."

"You are not worried about your reputation?"

"Thel listen, I do a lot of warring for the military. I have been on thousands of battlefields, not all of them have ended well. Whatever the case, both leading the spartans and the outcome of battle fall on my shoulders. It makes sense since I am the chief, but it also means that while my men go back to their families or go out for drinks after a victorious battle. I stay behind and train for the next one. I had nothing to go back to, but now I do. Now I have Earth to go back too, and I am sure as hell going to have a well deserved drink to celebrate."

"But you a human, haven't you always had Earth?"

"Actually I have never been to Earth myself. I was taken from my family as an infant and brought to a space station. There I spent my entire life training and looking at the stars and planets, trying to figure out where I came from, what this "Earth" was and why I had to protect it."

"I am sorry you had to experience that, it must have been tough."

"It wasn't supposed to happen actually. I was supposed to grow up with my family and when I turned 18 I could make a choice whether or not I wanted to join an army. What was done to me was a method that was used way in the past, it is now illegal." In any case, I am excited to finally meet Mother Earth. I hear she looks similar to the Halo ring.

"That makes sense. When the Halo was created, it was said that they molded it 'to resemble a perfect paradise.'"

We sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping our beers and watching the stars zoom by though the window. The mission had just ended and now it felt like another mission of similar magnitude was beginning. I was torn out of my trance when a sharp bell suddenly sounded in the cabin, followed by a man saying "Good Morning Marines, this is your captain speaking to let you know that we are earthbound. Estimated time is one hour, U.S. time is currently 6:45am, and the weather is sunny at 72 degrees."

My heart stopped, nothing could have prepared me for this moment. I was trembling from head to toe, terribly nervous about landing on Earth. What if I am placed in a warehouse and poked and prodded for research? What if I am executed? Or worse of all, what If I am given a citizenship but alienated because I look like a monster?! I felt like I was drowning in my own thoughts and worries when suddenly a hand was placed on my shoulder, pulling me back to the surface. "Don't worry about a thing Thel." John said, staring deeply into my eyes. "You will be accepted on Earth. Your a hero for crying out loud! You fought with us to save the galaxy! You carry a marine badge! And, you have just been promoted to be my number two." He added, handing me yet another badge. This one was green, and had an ivory silhouette of spartans running into battle, my name was engraved on the side in gold lettering.

I clutched the medal to my chest and stared back at the Chief's electric blue eyes. The moment was destroyed when suddenly I felt him squeezing certain parts of my shoulder. "C-Cheif what are you doing?" I asked, moving out of his reach.

"Sorry! I promise I am really good at it, I forgot you have scaly skin."

"Good at what?"

"It is called a massage. If you were softer skinned, you would found this very pleasant. It relaxes your muscles and leaves you feeling refreshed. But since you have scales you just felt pressure." He said laughing.

"Ah yes. That felt really weird."

We laughed together until suddenly the ship gave a lurch and we both lost our balance. I bumped into the Chief, knocking him down and landing on top of him. Quickly getting to my feet and brushing myself off, I turned away from the spartan. Embarrassed about my apparent clumsiness. Yet again, placing a warm hand on my shoulder the Chief spun me around. "Hey Arbiter." said the Chief pointing outside the window.

We had touched down and the scene in front of me was breathtaking. There was a beautiful lake, glistening with fresh sunlight. Tall trees dancing together in the wind, purple mountains climbing dominion over the land. Birds soaring high above and singing beautiful melodies. There were humans unloading the ship, giving each other hugs, smiling and laughing. A few marines that I eye contact with greeted me with a thumbs up, smile, or by clapping. This place was beautiful, it truly was a perfect paradise.

"Welcome to Earth."


End file.
